DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs o3
o3 leads the LLM Stats Score 31.0 to -3.0.
DeepSeek · OpenAI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
o3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 31.0 to -3.0, ranking #121 overall.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, o3 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose o3
- overall performance matters — it scores 31.0 and ranks #121 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B · 22 for o3
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while o3 is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA).
o3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only o3 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o3 specifies output context (100,000 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
o3 supports multimodal inputs, whereas DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B does not.
o3 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B
o3
License
Usage and distribution terms
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B is licensed under MIT, while o3 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B was released on 2025-01-20, while o3 was released on 2025-04-16.
o3 is 3 months newer than DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B.
Jan 20, 2025
1.7 years ago
Apr 16, 2025
1.5 years ago
2mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o3 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm o3's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B's cutoff date.
—
May 2024
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B and o3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B vs o3.